


Cruel Summer

by ohmsem



Series: Lover [1]
Category: The Folk of the Air - Holly Black
Genre: Based on a Taylor Swift Song, Book 1: The Cruel Prince, F/M, Fluff, Implied Feelings, Mutual Pining, Pining, They're in love but won't admit it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-28
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:27:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23885959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmsem/pseuds/ohmsem
Summary: Jude and Cardan share a getaway spot--and feelings for each other. Based on "Cruel Summer" by Taylor Swift.
Relationships: Jude Duarte/Cardan Greenbriar
Series: Lover [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1750762
Comments: 1
Kudos: 68





	1. Out the Window

**Author's Note:**

> "Fever dream high in the quiet of the night,  
> You know that I caught it.  
> Bad, bad boy shiny toy with a price,  
> You know that I bought it.  
> Killing me slow, out the window,  
> I'm always waiting for you to be waiting below.  
> Devils roll the dice, angels roll their eyes,  
> What doesn't kill me makes you want you more."

Cardan knew that there were a lot of great things about Faerie—he was, after all, a prince, and experienced each wonder to the highest degree. But on one cool night, just before dawn, he decided that he had found the best. 

Cardan could hear his older brother’s raised voice from his second story room, and the muffled tone told him it must be coming from the parlor at the far end of the hall. The dinner Balekin hosted for the rosy-skinned suitor and her father had wrapped up h ours ago, but it appeared the deliberations about his decision to officially court her were reaching a climax of their own. Crawling out of bed and putting an ear to the door, Cardan could make out snat ches of the “conversation” between his brother and the girl’s father, who seemed to be at odds about the relationship. 

It was all too much, Cardan thought. If he couldn’t feel anything above lust for a faerie girl, Balekin must not be able to either. But the young prince was restless, and staying in his stuffy chambers was unappealing. Instead, he slipped on a pair of trousers and a blouse . Before slipping out the window, Cardan grabbed a novel at random from the nearest shelf and proceeded to jump between ledges to reach the ground. 

The prince began to trek through the woods next to the estate, having little care for how far he went or in what direction he wandered. He watched the bark on the trees change from a dark oak to a milky white, and continued on unt il the branches became sparser and sparser and the moonlight illuminated his path better. 

The grass was thick and filled with white, pink, and baby blue flowers by the time Cardan decided to sit down. The air here was thick with a sweet scent, but it wasn’t the magical kind that brought energy to his bones. This scent was the kind that could lull one to sleep, like enchanted poppies. He was still restless, however, and instead lay down on a cushion of grass and began to read the book he had brought. It was a collection of stories from L. Frank Baum’s “The Wizard of Oz”, and the bright imagery soothed him as he flipped through the pages and felt his ever racing heart began to rest. 

That was, until he heard a crash through the brush to his left. 

“What the hell?” Cardan asked himself as he shot up and through the book down. It sounded as if someone had been running quickly from their spot watching him, and the thought of being spied upon while reading was more embarrassing than politically concerning. With the knot in his stomach giving him energy, Cardan began to race after the sound in the woods. 

The teenage boy’s long legs brought him quickly to a figure in a brown cloak, still running fast. Cardan took a leap and tackled the person from behind, using one hand to undo the clasp of the cloak and the other to tear off the thick hood. 

Though the person hadn’t been panting as they ran, her breath came fast as Jude looked up at Cardan with wide eyes. “I’m sorry--” she began, trying to squirm loose enough to run again. “I didn’t see anything, I just—I ’m going, I’m going home.” 

Cardan loosened his grip on Jude, but kept a hand around her wrist to keep her from going. “What were you doing out there?” he said, trying to keep his voice even. Cardan prayed that Jude couldn’t see the heat rushing up his neck and cheeks in the dim light, though he felt it all the same. 

She shook her head, eyes still wide, and tried to turn around. 

“I asked you a question.” Cardan tightened his grip on Jude’s wrist and tugged her back toward him. She stumbled backwards and turned to face him. 

“I just wanted to get out of the house,” she replied, face even. He could tell, however, that her pupils were blown with adrenaline. Whether it be from the fight or from seeing him in the _most_ embarrassing of situations, he was unsure. 

“Then why go back?” he asked her. Cardan was careful to add the lilt of somebody who didn’t care to his question, though his racing heart and knotting stomach were proof of the hope behind what was really a request. 

“My spot is obviously occupied,” Jude quipped, and Cardan’s eyebrows shot up. 

“ _Your_ spot?” he snorted. “I’ll remind you that I am the prince, Jude. All of Elfhame is my spot.” 

“Okay. So I’ll go home.” Jude turned on her heel as Cardan finally released her wrist and watched her go. 

“You don’t have to,” he breathed once she was a few steps away. Cardan would have assumed she didn’t hear him but for the slightest hitch in her step. As quick as it happened, though, she continued on her way. 

Cardan released a breath and turned around himself, resolving to grab his book and head home. 


	2. Seal My Fate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "And I snuck in through the garden gate   
> Every night that summer just to seal my fate.  
> And I screamed for whatever it's worth  
> 'I love you'--ain't that the worst thing you ever heard?"

“And I snuck in through the garden gate

Every night that summer just to seal my fate. 

And I screamed for whatever it’s worth

‘I love you’-- ain’t that the worst thing you ever heard?”

It had been two nights since Jude saw Cardan sitting in the meadow that lay dangerously close to Madoc’s estate. Though they had seen each other at classes since then, not a glance had been exchanged that may indicate a meeting between them. No matter how unplanned and  awkward, Jude still felt like it was a secret she had and was afraid to share. 

Why had he been reading a children’s book? Why did he seem so hesitant to let her go? Jude knew that there were rational reasons that would match up with his character. He was reading the Wizard of Oz to mock it, obviously, maybe even tearing up pages as he went. And he wanted her to stay—because isn’t that what he implied by saying she could?--for his own amusement at her discomfort. Yet even with this knowledge, Jude couldn’t shake the feeling that came with her memories of the late-night connection. The way her heart beat when remembering his long fingers grasping her wrist was treacherous, and the way his dark eyes still seared into her memory was revolting. Jude was sure Cardan felt the same. 

In the days and night since, Jude had made an effort to forget it had happened. She stayed in her room at night, trying find a comfortable place to draw to replace the one she had lost. But as dawn approached almost a week from that night, Jude gave up. She was sure that at the sight of her he had fled the other direction, and it was likely he wouldn’t come back. So she grabbed a brown cloak, a shoulder bag full of bread and fruit, and crawled out her window to return to the spot that was rightfully hers. 

All the way to the meadow—about a  ten minute walk from the house—Jude reasoned with herself. He wasn’t there, of course he wasn’t. And even if he was, maybe she could give him a piece of her mind. Convince him to leave. Or simply disgrace him with her mortal presence until he was forced to leave in disgust. 

These thoughts should have comforted her, but the thought of emerging through the saplings and seeing him made her stomach twist in something like fear. Not quite fear, but something like it. 

Jude’s thoughts were so occupied with imagining their reunion that she was almost convinced it was a figment of her imagination when she saw a dark haired boy sitting on the lush grass reading the same goddamn book from before. 

“Oh, come on!” Jude groaned, loud enough that the boy looked up from his story with a wicked grin. 

“Finally come to join me, dear Jude?” Cardan asked her, shutting his book and moving it beside him  inconspicuously . “I’ve been so lonely without anyone to chase through the woods.”

“Lucky you,” Jude said, still standing in place. She should turn around. She should stay just to spite him. She should do  _ something.  _

Cardan remained staring at her in the most unreadable way, the tiniest laugh falling out of his lips. “My offer still stands,” he said smoothly, “if you would like to join me.”

Jude snorted. “How gracious. Lucky for you, I would like nothing more than to bother you.” With that, she marched over to a spot a short distance from him, close enough to watch but far enough to react in case of some trick or attack. 

Jude pulled the hood from her head and let the length of her coat act as a blanket for her bum as she sat down, protected from the dew forming on the grass. Out of the bag she pulled pieces of parchment she was sketching on—flora and fauna she remembered from the mortal world as wel l as the more irregular shapes from Faerie. She has added the rough sketch of reflection to an apple when she felt eyes on her neck. 

Jude immediately snapped up and held her parchment behind her back, shocked to find Cardan standing directly behind where she was just sitting. When had he moved? How long had he been watching her?

“I didn’t know you could draw,” he said quietly, almost dangerously. “Your star charts have always been...average. I had no idea you could do something more.”

Jude wasn’t sure what to say, and so she said nothing. 

“Can I see more?” Cardan asked. Jude opened her mouth to say no, expecting a trick, but he responded before she could answer herself. “I’m simply curious, Jude. Don’t look so defensive.”

Jude dug her boot further into the ground and held out the parchments to Cardan, trying to steady the shake in her head. She didn’t pride herself on her art, not really, but it still felt like something too personal to give to Cardan. The threat of his maliciousness  lingered in the air between them as he shuffled through the papers, eyes scanning the charcoal lines and curves decorating them. 

“These are good, Jude,” Cardan told her before handing them back. She didn’t respond and instead searched his eyes, his voice, for any trace of maliciousness. It couldn’t be a compliment, but...he actually thought they were good. 

“Thanks,” she finally choked out, kneeling to stuff them back into her bag. 

Much to her dismay, Cardan sat where he was previously standing. In her spot. 

“Don’t you have better places to spend your sleepless nights?” Jude asked. “Like in your bed, in  Nicasia’s bed, in any other meadow but the one by my house?”

“I probably do,” Cardan answered simply. “But I like this one.”

“I think you just like getting under my skin.”

“You wouldn’t be wrong in that assumptions, either.” Hesitantly, Jude sat across from Cardan and looked between him and the book he had left in the grass. 

“What...what is that?” she asked, gesturing to where the bound pages lay. 

“Oh, nothing,” Cardan answered, laughing. “Just some mortal story I use to remind myself how much better my life is than theirs.”

Jude didn’t respond to that, merely rolled her eyes. Instead, she pulled out an apple from the bag and wiped it on her skirt. Pausing to consider, she then took a second apple out and tossed it to Cardan. 

“You know, throwing things at the prince is ill advised,” he responded, catching the fruit. “But I’ll accept it as a gift regardless.”

Jude smirked at him and bit into her own apple, and they ate in silence. It was awkward , definitely, but the tension from before seemed to have disappeared in the fog rising around them. The sun had begun to peak its first beams across the horizon, and the sky was beginning to brighten to a deep lilac. 

“Will you be coming here all the time, now?” Jude asked as she stood up and re-secured her hood.

Cardan looked around, then back up at her. “No.” 

“Okay.” She dusted off some grass that was stuck her cloak and dress as the prince stood up. They stood close, closer than Jude had previously noticed, but the distance between them felt both suffocating and welcomed as she met his eyes. Their noses almost touched, stray hairs brushing above their head s. Cardan wasn’t wearing any jewelry from his head or ears tonight, only drab travelling clothes.

“Okay,” Jude repeated, before backing up and heading home. She didn’t return to the meadow, and neither did Cardan. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're familiar with this song please catch the part where I tried to incorporate "HE LOOKS UP GRINNING LIKE A DEVIL" because that line really hits different. If you're not familiar with that song, go listen to it. Whether or not you like Taylor Swift. It's pure magic.


	3. The Shape of Your Body

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "It's new, the shape of your body.  
> It's blue, the feeling I've got.  
> It's a cruel summer.  
> It's cool, that's what I tell him.  
> No rules in breakable heaven, but  
> it's a cruel summer with you."

Cardan blinked sleepily into the dimly lit room he laid in, a candle beside his bed and the fire in the hearth the only sources of life. He was sprawled on the left side of a king bed, and looked sleepily to his right to see if anybody lay with him. There was the body of a girl, laying on her side. His moved closer and put his hand on the dip above her hip, and planted a gentle kiss on her round ear. 

The time piece on the wall told him it was a few hours before noon, several hours before the two sleeping royals had to wake up and start their day. Cardan closed his eyes and breathed in the scent of Jude's hair, trying to will himself back to sleep. He couldn't drift off, though, as there was a pit in his stomach from the lonely dream he had just had. 

Cardan debated with himself on whether or not to wake Jude. While it would bring him comfort, tired Jude was often quite grumpy. However, Cardan realized that he would be comforted even with Jude yelling at him, and so he gently shook her side and whispered her name. 

"Is everything okay?" she whispered, turning her head slightly to see him. 

"Yes, my dear," Cardan said. Now that she was awake, he wasn't sure what to say. "I just wanted to talk."

"About what? Can it wait?" 

"Nothing of importance. I'm sorry for waking you. I just...I had a dream and woke up and I thought having you yell at me might bring me back to reality."

Jude flipped on to her other side to face him. "Was it nightmare?" She still seemed disgruntled, but at least she was responsive. 

"In a way, yes." There was a beat where Jude waited for him to explain, but Cardan didn't want to delve back into the lonely expanse and throat rawing yelling of his mind. Instead, he changed the subject. "Do you remember the field behind your house?" he asked instead. 

"The one you stole from me," Jude responded, her tone somewhere between a question and a statement. 

"Yes! Exactly the one. When's the last time you went?" 

"A long time ago," Jude answered and brought her hand to lace with Cardan's above the comforter. "I didn't go back after you started going there."

His face fell slightly. "I'm sorry. I'm sure you think I was trying to take something good away from you, or mock you. I hope you now know that wasn't the case."

"I haven't thought about it in a while, actually. I probably felt that way at the time, though." Jude paused, watched her husband's face. She wasn't good with soothing words, but she gave it her best effort regardless. "I don't anymore, though. We can't blame each other for childhood miscommunication." 

Cardan nodded, then sat up. "We should go now," he said, already swinging his legs out of bed and into pants. 

"I'm still half asleep, you know," Jude said, but she was moving to get ready as well. 

"We'll bring a picnic and blankets," Cardan explained, not listening. "We can sit together. You can fall back asleep there, if you want."

Jude couldn't keep the laugh from her lips as she watched him get excited. "Okay. Okay, we'll go."

...

The saplings had grown a little taller and the grass had grown a little thicker, but the meadow and its flowers were still there. Once in sight, Cardan rushed forward and put the blankets on the ground, creating a warm nest in which he sat and waited for Jude. She was a few steps behind him, a dark blue blanket wrapped around her shoulders like a cape, but she sat next to her husband and reached into the basket they brought for a pastry. 

Jude's legs extended across Cardan's, and his arm stretched to rest behind her back. They ate pastries and scones in silence, the sweetness of the food filling the room for words. Jude licked her fingers clean when finished, and Cardan watched before taking her mouth in his. 

"I'm glad that I can do that now," he told her before moving in to kiss her again. It wasn't rushed or heated in the way the two had a tendency to be, but was instead passionate in a different way. Their lips worked together softly and slowly, as if they were teenagers just learning the rules of love. 

"I'm glad too," Jude told him once they had pulled away. Cardan had moved to lay with his back on the ground, and Jude threw a leg and arm over him and rested her head on his shoulder. "I'll fall asleep here, you know," she told him through a yawn. 

"I know," he responded, and for once in their lives, they were at peace. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you can't tell I'm obsessed with a. domestic non-sexual sleeping together and cuddling and cute stuff and b. the schedule that Faerie operates on. Holly Black really did THAT when creating this universe. Her brain is huge.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! So the first chapter of this, "Out the Window", is actually part of a series of one shots I'm working on. It's called "Folk of the Air One-Shots" (super creative, I know) but feel free to check it out and leave some recommendations/advice/support/critique. I've just recently gotten into writing again and this series it the reason why haha.


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